Safe Landing for Vizquel

It’s officially a minor-league deal, but the Texas Rangers aren’t kidding anyone. They need Omar Vizquel, whom they signed yesterday, to smooth over a potentially volatile situation. He won’t just be a member of the Rangers this year, he’s likely to play a great deal.

In typical Ranger form, the front office completely botched a touchy situation with shortstop Michael Young. He’s one of the best, a Gold Glover last year and a five-time All-Star. You’d think the Rangers would take a long, hard look at 20-year-old prospect Elvis Andrus before making him the starting shortstop, but no, team president Nolan Ryan decided to take that gamble, and let GM Jon Daniels explain the bad news to Young.

Young said he was never asked by Daniels if he’d be willing to move to third base. “I was flat-out told I’d be playing there,” he said. “I felt I had absolutely no say.” Young immediately demanded a trade, the press jumped all over it, and the team had a bitter controversy well before the start of spring training.

Andrus has never played above the Double-A level. It’s possible he could arrive somewhat nervously in camp, struggle in the exhibition games and show that he needs some more seasoning. That’s where Vizquel, perhaps the greatest defensive shortstop of all time (even Ozzie Smith fans would admit Vizquel has the most gifted hands), comes in. The Rangers won’t believe what they have in Vizquel, who so elegantly graced the Giants’ infield for four seasons. He’s infinitely better than Young, defensively, and even Andrus’ promising glove takes a back seat to Vizquel’s pure magic.

Through it all, Young can’t be that thrilled. His old position is about to be shared by a totally untested kid and a 42-year-old guy probably playing his last season. Young may still want out, but with a lucrative contract running through 2013, he’ll be extremely difficult to trade. Vintage Texas Rangers.

3-DOTTING: Utter laziness, one of their trademarks, cost the Warriors a win against Oklahoma City last night. We heard a lot of talk about their new “motion” offense, featuring crisp ball movement, but there was none of that down the stretch at Oracle. “Empty possessions,” as Bob Fitzgerald called it on the air, put them in perfect position to lose . . . Agent Scott Boras would never admit it, but he may have blown the best deal for Manny Ramirez. With the economy in shambles and teams fearful of offering Manny a multi-year deal, the right call was to accept the Dodgers’ offer of arbitration by the December 7 deadline. It would have been an insult to Ramirez’ pride and Boras’ track record, but if Manny had done that, he’d be looking at a contract — perhaps as high as $30 million — that would make him the highest-paid player in the game for the coming season. If he were to come up with another dynamic performance in L.A., without causing any trouble, teams might take a shot at a multi-year deal next winter. As it is, Ramirez is steaming. The Dodgers aren’t budging from a two-year offer. They’ll probably out-bid the Giants or any other team that might step forth, but Ramirez won’t forget their cavalier, almost dismissive attitude. And that could backfire against the boys in blue . . . If I were ESPN and pathetic anchorman John Anderson made one more reference to the Denver Nuggets as the “rich creamies,” I’d tell him he was about to receive his last paycheck, and that it would be delivered in a vat of urine . . . Shaquille O’Neal may be revitalized (ESPN’s Tim Legler claims “he’s looked better than he has in years”), but the Phoenix Suns are a sad story. They went into Madison Square Garden last night and took a depressing loss against their former coach, Mike D’Antoni. The Knicks proved to be the up-tempo, exciting team, while the Suns ran nothing but half-court sets — most of them unsuccessful — over the last six minutes. And forget whatever you’ve heard about Shaq’s improved free throwing. He was 5-for-13 last night, missing three of his last four. Put it this way: With nearly a full game in your wake, you don’t step to the line for a crucial, crunch-time free throw and shank it hard off the front rim. That’s the sign of an awful free-thrower, lifetime, case closed.

The NFL replay system becomes more of a joke each week. First of all, forget the challenges, OK? As soon as a coach runs out of challenges and you can’t use the technology to correct an error, the system falls apart. Better to place a three-man referee panel in every press box, with the job of watching television replays, ruling on every questionable play and doing it quickly. They make the call, with a 2-1 or (hopefully) unanimous vote. And ditch the preposterous sight of an NFL official getting a peep-show look at replays when everyone in the country already knows the proper call. Seriously, they have to be kidding with this . . . NFL chump of the week, surpassing even Anquan Boldin: Pittsburgh wide receiver Limas Sweed, who dropped a certain touchdown pass against Baltimore and then pretended to be injured (must have been that balky knee), costing the Steelers their final timeout of the first half. Then again — Limas Sweed? . . . As fans feared the worst about the fallen Willis McGahee, so brutally hit by Pittsburgh safety Ryan Clark, thoughts drifted back to the NFL’s only on-field fatality. It was October 24, 1971. Detroit’s Chuck Hughes, a storied wide receiver in his collegiate days at Texas Western (now UTEP), had a heart attack in the final minutes of a game against the Chicago Bears at Tiger Stadium. In the process of running a pass route (the ball was thrown incomplete to Charlie Sanders), Hughes suddenly collapsed to the ground without being hit. The injury cast a pall over the rest of the game, and the Lions were informed of his death before they left the stadium that evening.

E-MAIL OF THE DAY, from Kevin Askeland in Willows, regarding the recent blog on 3-point shooting: “Once a fan of the 3-point shot, I now feel that it has slowed the fundamental development of young players. As a teacher, I look out at the playground and all I see are kids launching the ball from 22 feet without ever working on their shot — just the heave. At halftime of any high-school game, watch the kids who come out of the stands to shoot the ball. Every shot is a 3-pointer, poorly shot. For that matter, watch when teams warm up before a game. Nearly all of them are attempting 3’s rather than shots closer to the basket. I had the chance to watch some old film of a high-school basketball game played between a pair of local schools from the 1975 season. It was like I was watching an entirely different game. The spacing, the movement, the drives to the hoop. No one was planted along the 3-point arc waiting for a shot. It was fun to watch.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY, from New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul: “I’m coming across more kids now who tell me that they want to be Barack Obama. A year ago, they would’ve wanted to be Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant or the hottest rapper of the day. This is someone to tell kids that there’s got to be more to their lives than just basketball. They can definitely see that now. This is nothing short of incredible, what we’re seeing.”